DISQUS

James Sullivan · 5 months ago

Ernest Rutherford.

Then again I'm a Kiwi and he's probably one of the more well known Kiwi's in history. :)

Fernanda · 5 months ago

Hi there!

Pasteur was the man!

Virology blog is in my blogroll (which is a nanobiotechnology blog in portuguese, named magic bullet - in portuguese too of course)

Congratulations for your blog!

Jay · 5 months ago

Louis Pasteur was the first one to jump into my head. Surprised he could fit really.

Not surprised that a significant percentage of the general population were unable to name a scientist though.

Mark · 5 months ago

Wesley Wong who recently published some fine work in Nature elucidating cleavage mechanisms in the von Willebrands protein was the first non-relative to come to my mind. He's also a friendly and receptive chap when faced with communications from stranger than average (Kiwi) strangers.

phogdog · 5 months ago

Lavoisier

mdubuque · 5 months ago

Geraldo Rivera.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Gregory Bateson.

Megan · 5 months ago

Watson & Crick

shruti · 5 months ago

Watson and Crick

Joe Grove · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman - the best!

raphaelf · 5 months ago

My favorites for me are Carl Sagan (astronomer) and Isaac Asimov (PhD in biochemistry). I chose them primarily for their literature works but still they're scientists.

Raj · 5 months ago

Alexander Fleming

Zachary · 5 months ago

Darwin was the first to come to mind.

Pat · 5 months ago

Doris Taylor. I just listened to a podcast from the Univ. of Minnesota a couple of days ago in which she discussed her work with stem cells and replacing damaged organs. Fascinating research.

andrewcsinger · 5 months ago

L. Pasteur and J. Monod are groundbreaking scientists!

Ken · 5 months ago

Carl Woese.

Jessica · 5 months ago

James Watson.

Lauren · 5 months ago

Isaac Newton

anon · 5 months ago

Norman Borlaug

B.T.Carolus · 5 months ago

Linus Pauling

Rogers Cadenhead · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking

Marissa · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman !

Megan Crumpler · 5 months ago

Robert Koch

TaoWarrior · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking was my first thought

AndyB62 · 5 months ago

Dr. E.O. Wilson

Dave S. · 5 months ago

Benjamin Frankin

Dave S. · 5 months ago

Sorry Mr. Franklin

Xenu · 5 months ago

John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Isaac Hayes, and Sarah Palin

James L · 5 months ago

That's scientists, not scientologists. :) Beware of volcanic eruptions Xenu.

CRMNL · 5 months ago

Max Planck

AndyB62 · 5 months ago

I love his constant!

Bill Whitehouse · 5 months ago

Gregor Mendel, considered the father of genetics for documenting inherited traits in plants.

S7 · 5 months ago

Herb York (RIP) first comes to mind, Henry Abarbanel at UCSD, Ramanathan at UCSD- Scripps, Vujica (sp?) and Dan Chivers, Bethany Lyles, all at UC Berkeley's Nuclear Engineering Dept.,

JohnMM · 5 months ago

Chu. Oppenheimer. Maybe I read the wrong blogs? But am I the only one to notice that 4% named an engineer?

rosekitty · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking.

Harry · 5 months ago

Darwin; Wallace; Planck; Lorentz; Maxwell; Feynman; Sagan; Kelvin; Watt; Volt; Ohm; Dennett; Asimov; Ada; Curie; Tesla; Bernouillie; Pascal; Newton; Minsky; Rontgen; Becquerel; Joule; Gallileo; da Vinci; Nobel; Dawkins; Mendelev; Petrie; Bohr; Hofstadter; Goldstein; Savoy; Dirac; Hawking; Penrose; Fermi; Drake; Hubble; Oppenheimer; Einstein; Hertz; Vander Waal; Cherenkov; Bose; Podolsky; Dyson; Herzsprung; Russell; Schwarzschild; Gellmann; Wolfram; Ervynck

/not a US adult, sorry.

phoenix · 5 months ago

a pure guess - Edward Jenner. Who I think was famous in relation to vaccinations

Alexandre · 5 months ago

In less than 5 minutes from the top of my head.

Aristotle
Charles Darwin
Lord Kelvin
Albert Einstein
Heisenberg
Alfred Nobel
Schroedinger
Louis Pasteur
Mendel
Nicolas Tesla
Marie Curie
Bose
Carnot
Max Planck
Maxwell
Fibonacci
Voltaire
Leonardo DaVinci
Gallileo
Corpernicus
Verner Von Brown
Isaac Newton
Isaac Asimov

Love · 5 months ago

Asimov, well then how about Forsyth or Ludlum?

Harry · 5 months ago

Isaac Asimov had a Ph.D. in biochemistry and was a tenured associate professor in Boston University, school of Medicine. He was a real scientist. Many science fiction writers were scientists first. I don't know about Forsyth or Ludlum and I'm not disparaging them, but when the criterion is 'a scientist', Asimov certainly qualifies.

Khusro Karim · 5 months ago

Michael Faraday.

James Kirk · 5 months ago

My dear friend , Mr. Spock of Vulcan.

J. Ruigrok van der Werven · 5 months ago

I'm biased as I would say: Albert Osterhaus. But that's because of my previous jobs where his name would regularly be mentioned in relation to electronic publishing.

Love · 5 months ago

Jerry brukheimmer or openhiemmer I dont know, well he did something.

Trans · 5 months ago

Clarke Fraser

Kull · 5 months ago

Galileo Galilei, Faraday, Werner Heisenberg, The Curies, Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla,

Mervyn · 5 months ago

Francis Bacon was my first thought. Although that could be mostly because I'm hungry...

Matt Simmons · 5 months ago

Off the top of my head, I'd say Hawking, Newton, Einstein, Bohr, Degrasse Tyson, Pasteur, Curie, Edison, Franklin, Tesla.

Can I count computer scientists, like Vint Cerf?

teslatrooper · 5 months ago

nikola tesla - makes einstein look like george bush

Informer · 5 months ago

I'm sorry, but that is pure ignorance. I don't think you understand how incredible and prolific Einstein's theories were. Tesla was an extraordinary genius--there's no doubt. But Einstein completely laid the foundation for all of modern physics. He unified the electro and magnetic forces. He completely changed our understanding of gravity and managed to derive the fact that energy and mass were the same. Finally, he opened up the entire field of quantum mechanics-though ironically he was one of the most fervent fighters against qm. Look up the miracle year (1905).

test · 5 months ago

The traditionally held view is that Maxwell unified E&M. The energy mass equivalence is something that had been proposed by many before Einstien (and can be derived from Maxwell's work), although not as clearly laid out or boldly stated as Einstien.

I thought of Feynman, Pauling first.

Informer · 5 months ago

True, though I believe Einstein's was the first to realize what maxwell's equations actually implied. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Wilkeson · 5 months ago

First name that popped into my head: Feynman.

David · 5 months ago

Niels Bohr.

Harbinjer · 5 months ago

John von Neumann: computer science, physics, math, economics. A real polymath.

Judie Herr · 5 months ago

Carl Sagan

julegaver · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla

danuka · 5 months ago

Paul Dirac

Jeff Katz · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla came to mind first, after that, J.R. Oppenheimer ...

I suppose I have a perversion for the mass destructive.

chris · 5 months ago

Tesla

SC · 5 months ago

Charles Darwin

Olly · 5 months ago

De Vinci

a · 5 months ago

My favorite, Max Planck

dawnazon · 5 months ago

Neil deGrasse Tyson.

James · 5 months ago

Ada Lovelace.

As a CS student, I'm biased towards the computational fields. :P

S · 5 months ago

Robert Millikan

David Worrell · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking

Anonymous · 5 months ago

Alpine Kat, author of the LHC rap.

Xc · 5 months ago

Werner Heisenberg

AC · 5 months ago

Rosalind Franklin

blankity blank · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking jumped to mind first. Then Procter & Gamble... damn branding.

Grace · 5 months ago

The first one that popped into my mind was Nikola Tesla.

Will · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla! What a bad ass....

Hacksaw Jim Duggar · 5 months ago

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

Or however that's spelled. Microscope guy.

Will · 5 months ago

Richard Dawkins, first to come to mind

danc1005 · 5 months ago

Galileo Galilei?
Pretty classic...

Nicolaï · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla came to mind first.

The poll results are sad but not surprising.

Mike · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla.

Nicholas · 5 months ago

Feynman

Nick · 5 months ago

Feynman!

Flail · 5 months ago

Bill Nye the science guy.

brandon · 5 months ago

richard dawkins

Linkrz · 5 months ago

All I can think of is Albert Einstein ahhhhh

Rodney Dangerfield · 5 months ago

Dr. Vinny Boom Bots!

A · 5 months ago

Linus Pauling.

Arturo · 5 months ago

I immediately think of the duo of Watson and Crick.....after that Bohr. I haven't read the comments section yet of course. Looking forward to seeing if others picked these dudes.

Sui · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman.

Chris · 5 months ago

Tesla

SS · 5 months ago

Michael Faraday

Scott · 5 months ago

Francis Crick! Stanislav Ulam!

Geneticists and nuclear physicists are my heroes.

Dan Zappone · 5 months ago

Robert Hooke

Eric Schulman · 5 months ago

umm. Albert Hoffman, anyone?

Tobias · 5 months ago

Democritus (atomic theory @ ~450 BC)

Mishkin · 5 months ago

Gallileo

Jeff · 5 months ago

Alan Turing

JamesFenimoreCooper · 5 months ago

Werner Heisenberg

Tony · 5 months ago

George Washington Carver.

Chris Mejia · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla

Man was a genius.

JRose · 5 months ago

Glenn Theodore Seaborg, winner of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, former cancellor of UC Berkeley, and a damn decent guy.

albatross · 5 months ago

Steven Hawking was the first name that came to mind, and I'm pretty sure I could come up with more than a hundred names without all that much trouble; I suspect most of your readers could dew the same. But the set of people interested enough in science to read a virology blog is perhaps a slightly different population than the one L'Oreal sampled.

anonymous · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman

Amy · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla

Pedro · 5 months ago

Neils Bohr

Hadley · 5 months ago

I thought of Curie quickly followed by VS Ramachandran and Freeman Dyson, for some reason.

AbbyK · 5 months ago

Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Jason · 5 months ago

It is difficult to comment entirely spontaneously after reading a list of scientists. But assuming the question really is "name a scientist other than the four mentioned here": I would of course say Charles Darwin! Not mentioned because his name might be synonymous with "agent of the devil" to many, perhaps. Or Fermi. Or Skinner. Or Watson. Or any of the fine fellows after whom units are named: Ohm, Watt, Joule, Newton.

Or Oppenheimer. Or perhaps my all-time favorite:s Feinman, B. Fuller, and Dyson.

theshunter · 5 months ago

Scheordinger

Miss Cellania · 5 months ago

First thought was my late father, but I can think of plenty I'm not related to. Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog. Greg Laden. Carl Zimmer. Alex Santoso. I get all my science from blogs these days.

Dman · 5 months ago

Carl Sagan
...was the first name that popped into my head. How about scientists whose names are part of our language and culture? Fahrenheit, Hubble, Hertz, Newton, Diesel, Watt, Bell, Nobel, Darwin, Bill Nye

Mike · 5 months ago

Newton

Reconscious · 5 months ago

Michio Kaku

Joe · 5 months ago

Newton

JErk · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla

Lev Termen

dillikumar · 5 months ago

I know only few people those are unvaluable , namely
antony van leeuvenhoek
louis pasteur
robert koch
lodish baltimore
john gregor mendel
charles darwin
isaac newton
madamcurie

roengtoen
edward jenner
joseph lister
m s swaminathan
t h morghan
hugo de wries
watson and crick
alexander fleming

Michiel · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman

John · 5 months ago

John Bardeen

Baka · 5 months ago

Mr. Wizard!

Chromis · 5 months ago

Thought of Albert Einstein first, but immediately thought of Nikola Tesla following.

Martin · 5 months ago

Robert Oppenheimer

Capt. Qwark · 5 months ago

Richard Feynmann of course.

ThatGuyMike · 5 months ago

The first name that came to mind when I saw this was Clifford Stohl, an astronomy proffessor at Cal Berkeley who wrote a fabulous book called Cuckoo's Egg about early internet days (2400 baud modem period) when he detected an intruder to their network and he tracked the caller back to a spy in East Germany or something. Very witty story contrasting the hippy, tree-hugger, bicycle-riding professor and the men-in-black, sunglasses wearing FBI guys who show up to work with him in locating the intruder.

Second name that came to mind is my high school physics teacher, Bill Layton... this dude made his own 1000 watt speaker system and played old vinyl zeppelin records at lunch break.


Third is the late, great Randy Pausch from Carnegie Mellon.

Gawron · 5 months ago

Stefan Banach

lagrange · 5 months ago

Cauchy.

tesla rocks · 5 months ago

nikolai tesla

Michael · 5 months ago

*Nikola

anonymous · 5 months ago

richard feynman

iggy · 5 months ago

Kurt Gödel

troy · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla

Joanna · 5 months ago

Jonas Salk, who invented the first polio vaccine. Then again, I'm a historian, so that could be considered cheating. :)

Rob · 5 months ago

Nicolai Tesla. Total badass. Crazy as hell though.

Rh1no · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla - a pioneer in a brave new world who's passion and genius was unequaled.

p · 5 months ago

Mary-Claire King

gReg · 5 months ago

richard feynman

Patrik · 5 months ago

Carl Linnaeus, Christopher Polhem, Anders Celsius

Eric Pringle · 5 months ago

Eli Metchnikov - discovered phagocytosis in starfish larvae and is one of the fathers of immunology

BobTheRJT011000 · 5 months ago

Turing, Masters and Johnson, Dr Cornell West :) ....

ET · 5 months ago

Oh come on, let's open it up to include the Otremere!

Ibn Sina-wrote a medical textbook that was used for 500 years

Al Battani-by combining Babylonian and Egyptian al jabr (that's algebra for those who la atatkallum alarabi) with Greek geometry, invented trigonometry.

(If the Arabic is off, I apologize-been a while)

Bob · 5 months ago

Werner Heisenberg

Fusto · 5 months ago

nikola tessla

Anonymous · 5 months ago

Svante Arrhenius

Sudu · 5 months ago

CV Raman, one for the indians

ET · 5 months ago

Who was the astronomer that the "Chandra x ray' observatory is named for?

Subrhaman Chandrasker or something like that? Seems like he found a way to determine mass of stars.

Any other Indians? Im coming up short...

Adam · 5 months ago

Feynman

~ · 5 months ago

Philip Plait, The Bad Astronomer

Might have something to do with reading his blog though.

Tiki · 5 months ago

Bill Nye!

But in seriousness, Isaac Newton.

Pete · 5 months ago

Nils Bohr is the first that springs to mind for me.

Armitage · 5 months ago

Nicola Tesla is my personal favorite. He would have made a great Bond villain.

ET · 5 months ago

Any Far East that anyone can think of? I know Shigella is named for someone in Japan. Any others?

China? Anyone?

Aeromax · 5 months ago

Linus Pauling.

lyric · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking

Jack W. · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking.

steve · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla

Alex · 5 months ago

Richard Feyman

Sean · 5 months ago

Benjamin Banneker?
The first one I came up with actually was Gregor Mendel. Damn you freshman biology!

zzing · 5 months ago

Paul Dirac

Orlando · 5 months ago

Here's a list of some with stupid nicknames I've given them, just for some variety. Some of the nicknames pretty much only make sense to me.

Neils "Nelly" Bohr, Richard "Slickback" Feynman, Erwin "Kitty" Schroedinger, Nikola "I'll Show You All!!!!" Tesla, Thomas "Thanks Nikola" Edison, Guglielmo "Radiohead" Marconi, Jonas "Crazylegs" Salk, Albert "The MC" Einstein, Nicolaus "Universal Soldier" Copernicus, Carl Sagan, Isaac "The Force" Newton, Charles "Chuck" Darwin, and of course, Stephen "Wheels" Hawking.

DT · 5 months ago

You messed up one; it should be Guglielmo "Radiohead-Thanks Nikola" Marconi.

f · 5 months ago

nikolai tesla

Jason · 5 months ago

Doc Octopus

thenonimous · 5 months ago

Isaac Newton

max · 5 months ago

stephen hawking came to mind first

Michael · 5 months ago

Why no love for Tesla?

DT · 5 months ago

Michio Kaku, Richard Feynman, Nikola Tesla, and Buckminster Fuller popped into my head simultaneously, so I'd say they all qualify as the "first."

James L · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman. Physics, yay!

Guest · 5 months ago

Richard Feynman

gonzalo Urrutia · 5 months ago

i thought of tesla
fits the crazy scientist type

AndyB62 · 5 months ago

Dian Fossey

AndyB62 · 5 months ago

Dr. Emmett Brown

schadenfreudian · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla. (Edison can suck it)

ET · 5 months ago

??

tom · 5 months ago

J. Robert Oppenheimer

Thomas Overton · 5 months ago

hershey and chase...name that phage

Nubisor · 5 months ago

Copernicus!

Dan · 5 months ago

Gregor Mendel was the first name in my head

Knapalm · 5 months ago

Sir Isaac Newton

Joe Bloggs · 5 months ago

Linus Pauling

Dee · 5 months ago

George Washington Carver

Dan · 5 months ago

I came up with 3 off the cuff
Einstein
Tesla
Fermi

Moneil · 5 months ago

Amy Mainzer

Sapik · 5 months ago

Josiah Willard Gibbs

ijostl · 5 months ago

Nina Hartley.

...wait, she's a slut, wait no a scientist, wait...

...you know, those two professions seem to have some commonalities...

Scott · 5 months ago

Dr. Percy Julian is the one i thought of that i haven't seen listed. PBS had a wonderful show about his life and his work a few months back.
Ask if the average american can name a sports star or celebrity. . . our priorities in this country are skewed at best.

M · 5 months ago

Rachel Carson, Richard Feynman, Rosalind Franklin

dave · 5 months ago

Vincent Racaniello

David Loria · 5 months ago

Clodomiro Picado Twight, a Costa Rican scientist. He was pioneer in the researching snakes and serpent venoms; his internationally recognized achievement was the development of various anti-venom serums. He was one of the precursors of the discovery of penicillin, which he used to treat patients a couple of years before the formal discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming.[1] He wrote over 115 works, mainly books and monographs.

Melkarion · 5 months ago

Nikola Tesla. The classic mad scientist.

Kate · 5 months ago

Linus Pauling

C Day · 5 months ago

Barbara McClintock.

Janice Numtwabe · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking

Janice Numtwabe · 5 months ago

Or Einstein

- Janice,
Stroller Travel System

Wilijon · 5 months ago

Isn't 23% about the same percentage that thought G W hung the moon?

dottholliday · 5 months ago

Enrico Fermi
Richard Feyman

melissa · 5 months ago

James Watson!

Swede · 5 months ago

Too many to choose from! However, considering these pandemic times and that the most common advice from Health Officials to the General Public is "Wash your hands frequently", I can not help thinking about;

Ignaz Semmelweis

A simple advice that has saved a whole lot of lives since the 1840s.

Ilse · 5 months ago

Newton was the first one who came to mind, then Galilei.

gera hasse · 5 months ago

Stephen Hawking leaps to mind.

Pat · 5 months ago

John Wheeler. (I'm an astrophysicist.)

jason Halperin · 5 months ago

Paul Farmer

Andrew · 5 months ago

I would say Vincent Racaniello, because I just read this, and it's right there--and there's no discounting that fact. Then I probably would have said Mendel.

אריאל גלולה · 5 months ago

Dimitri Iosifovich Ivanovsky the Russian biologist who was the first to discover viruses.

ducker · 5 months ago

Sylvia Earle, Jane Lubchenko

Name · 5 months ago

Darwin, of course.

Name · 5 months ago

Sylvia Earl. Eugenie Clark. Ada Lovelace. Rita Colwell. Nancy Chang. Diane Fossey. Marie Curie. Rosalind Franklin. Gertrude Elion. Rita Levi-Montalcini.

I wonder how much of the general population can name a female scientist?

profvrr · 5 months ago

It's a good question. I can tell you what fraction of virology blog
readers can do so, when I compile the results.

angry_larry · 5 months ago

First scientist to my mind; Louis Pasteur - organic chemist/microbiologist
"Famous" scientists (who are also women) not mentioned so far: Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, Jane Goodall
An organic chemist: Carolyn Bertozzi/UC Berkeley
A microbiologist: Eva Harris/UC Berkeley

G. Lee Wall · 3 months ago

Richard Feynman